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Donald Trump is not dead, although trends suggest otherwise. The hashtag "#TrumpIsDead" started trending on Twitter on Tuesday, November 1, 2022. Despite the flood of tweets, the rumors are baseless. No official statements have indicated that the former American president has passed away.
The death hoax has reportedly been traced to comedian Tim Heidecker, who tweeted that the president "sounds like he's dying" in a report where Donald Trump was commenting on the assault on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul Pelosi.
The comedian wrote:
"Trump, I'm sad to say sounds like he's dying here. I think in fact that maybe he is and could possibly have a very grave disease of which he is dying from. We don't know but it's not good."
In response, a user tweeted that they heard from a friend that Trump had died. Heidecker replied to the message suggesting that either Trump is dead and they are covering it up or he is "badly dying" at the moment.
The comedian continued with another tweet stating that Trump is dead, Elon Musk has suppressed the news, and that Donald Trump Jr. is now plain Donald Trump.
Heidecker's tweets received close to 20,000 likes and thousands of retweets within an hour, and #TrumpIsDead started trending on Twitter on Tuesday.
Donald Trump's death hoax used to test Twitter's new free speech policy
It was late afternoon when the hashtag appeared under the "What's happening" section for American audiences. Tweets poured in reply to Heidecker's tweet.
A fake CNN headline added to the hoax.
Many believed that the post was intended to satirize the propagation of misinformation that has been taking place on Twitter since Elon Musk's takeover, and test the extent to which the new censorship policy would stretch.
One user wrote that the hashtag proved that Musk has zero interest in stopping blatant disinformation and malinformation.
The hashtag was created after "Chief Twit's" controversial tweet with an unfounded conspiracy about the violent attack on Paul Pelosi. Tweets referring to the now-deleted post also cropped up.
Speculations about Donald Trump's death fuelled the fire.
Jokes abounded as the hashtag kept gaining traction.
Heidecker acknowledged the popularity of the hashtag and tweeted that "many are sad by the news."
Filmmaker Jeremy Newberger also joined in and tweeted that a Trump stand-in has been "made from polyurethane foam and Sunkist soda," according to his sources.
Elon Musk, who is an active participant on Twitter, is yet to respond to the hashtag.
The Tesla CEO changed his Twitter bio from "Chief Twit" to "Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator" on Monday, November 1, 2022, after complaints poured in about the dissemination of false information and other problematic content on the platform. On Tuesday, he wrote:
Donald Trump, who has been suspended from Twitter since January due to concerns of inciting further violence following the Capitol Hill incident, has not reacted to the hashtag on his personal social media, Truth Social.
This is the former president's second time as the subject of a death hoax. In 2016, Donald Trump was the victim of a false claim that stated that he had died after a "violent heart attack."
